lownote

Sire fivers are good, but they're neither the lightest nor smallest basses around.

Six months into (premature) retirement and two weeks into lockdown 2 I found myself running out of things to do and also drifting towards depression. I had given myself five things to do - bass practice, sax prax, getting better at watercolour portraits, riding bicycles and writing my maiden novel. The trouble is I am irredeemably shite at the first three things, it's winter, and the novel will never happen - and it's miserable being made aware of this (again). Realising depression is not a good place to go, I took stock and realised that one way of putting off re-realisation of the shite threshold is to pretend I'm starting from scratch. So today I dusted off the Ed Friedland walking bass course, Scott Devine's technique accelerator course and started Scott Paddock's excellent sax course right from the start. So far so good. I am posting this primarily as a motivational pressure on myself to avoid back sliding. YMMV.

IMHO, the MB 15 can be muddy, the MB 12 is a great compromise. Dunno about the MB 10s, although heard others sound good on them. As to their heads, they're a bit Marmite. I didn't especially like my LM2 until I chanced upon an eccentric EQ setting which worked for me and my needs perfectly.

I am running an Ashdown MAG300 head through a Phil Jones 4x7 + 2x7. The total of 6x7 works well vertically, even in my current rock band. It even handles the low B on my 5 string. The band like the sound and I like the sound. But I believe Phil Jones cabs are quite high spec/quality. As an observation each cab on its own sounds a little weedy, IMHO. Like chris_b I can't see the point of downsizing to a cab that weighs 24kg, like the Ashdown. Bear in mind a Barefaced 110 weighs 7kg.

Like I always say bass is child's play

My particular forest became a little easier to roam when Scott Devine gave me Gary Willis as a guide. We stopped in a glade and GW started to explain the sylvan system to me. I wot very little what he said, got bored and wandered off. But then I had an epifanny and took on board the sub currents of what he was trying to tell me. It doesn't matter where you wander in the wood, you're still taking a walk in the woods. Think about making music and not following systems. Systems are what you need when you're designing a petrochemical plant. In the wood, you're on a walk: in music all notes start to work if you focus on making music and not being a note mechanic. In ways that I can't fully explain a good many puzzles became unpuzzled. I get into trouble when I post about fretless being good for this. With fretless you create the note, reach for it, listen to it. confirm it. Fretted basses, like nuts and bolts and pipes, lends themselves to crafting systems. They encourage 'playing by numbers'. It is perhaps no coincidence that Willis plays fretless. All will become clear, glasshopper

Dunlop flats

SRF705 Portamento. Through an Ashdown 300 and 6 7" Phil Jones speakers.

I don't know the combo but my MB Little Mark 2 head was silent under any low or reasonable load.

Linder is as a god to me. I don't think any of my other heroes have quite such crisp, effortless, fast control of the fingerboard. And what's more he doesn't shred just for the sake of it, just where it's needed. Glad to have met him at the London Bass Show a couple of years ago. Oooh, this is my thousandth post. How exciting.

There are more lined offerings than unlined. Lined are more conventional and easier to convert to. Unlined is more fun, more challenging, more different. And not as difficult as you might think. Revelation do an unlined P bass for under 200 notes new. It’s my main gigging axe. Lovely to play and great in the mix.

Looks very nice indeed. If only it didn't have rumble strips on the board...

All of which puts doubt on that old mantra 'you gotta try it before you buy it'. Unless you take your band into the shop its all guesswork, luck and extrapolation. I just noticed I'm only three posts away from 1000. Cool.

I continue to be astonished how different a set up can sound in a band context versus at home alone. 'cause I'm such a grumpy old sod the majority of my experience is the latter. When just occasionally someone is silly enough to let me join their band I am amazed at how EQ settings, even choice of bass and amp, that sound great on their own can sound totally different in the mix and have to be changed quite substantionally to sound good. I 'spose it's harmonics or something - anyone know the theory as to why this should be so?

Do what I did. Buy one, see if you like it, if not sell it. Sound is so subjective trying to ring objective truth from others' personal opinions is not unakin to asking other people what you should have for tea. Ish.

I recently sold an Elf. Years ago I had be heavy TEs. By no means an expert on such things, but I couldn't hear the TE in the Elf, so I got rid PDQ. Light, small, well made, happy green, no character - but that's just MHO and E.

+10. And you get far more of a buzz from playing unlined, increasingly learning to trust your ear rather than looking at the board. Plus girls (and boys) look at you admiringly because you're not using L plates.

Scott Paddock just launched his on line school. So far I'm finding it really useful. Scott is a pro player who's also a good teacher, esp improv. 10 day trial, but also opt out anytime membership www.scottpaddocksaxschool.com

I have done it several times. Be firm but gentle. Fret nippers/pliers are essential to grab into and under the fret. Normal pliers risk issues. Rub a soldering iron over the fret to heat it before pulling. But obv don't heat it red hot. eBay. You're looking for thin vineer offcuts from quality woodworkers. Yes. NB. Defretting is the easy part. You then have to rub down the fingerboard- to curvature. Not impossible but scarier. Then you have to drop the nut slots. Ditto. It's all doable. And good fun. And you won't f it up so long as you apply caution, attention and common sense.

@KiOgon. I have summoned him and like the genie of the lamp he will hopefully appear. Let me explain. Most cheap basses compromise on the electronics. Entwhistle pickups happen to be both cheap and very good, but not quite the same can be said of the wiring. KiOgon will replace your existing loom with the very best quality components in a replacement loom. I have one on my Revelation P bass.

Very smart buy👌. KiOgon loom. Don't change anything else.

I am delighted this works for you - genuinely. I wish I could embrace this POV. But my 100% experience is that real life teachers are rubbish. I'm not saying they all are, just in my experience. I can't afford to keep throwing £25-40 an hour at the search for one who isn't.